Running
by themiller
Summary: She's spent all her life running...


**A/N: I want you guys to know that I like to write all my stories as if they were canon. Which means that if you find any, and I mean ANY contradiction to the real story within my stories, tell me immediately. I HATE writing AU stuff without my readers at least knowing about it.**

**Anyways. If you can believe it, I got this idea from a Christian rock song. Not exactly a songfic, as it doesn't follow the song, just part of the chorus. Like the story? Check out Chris Tomlin's **_**Marvelous Light.**_

**P.S.: Sorry about the shortness. This is more of a filler to reach my next fiction ;). Read more below.**

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><p>She had spent her entire life running away.<p>

Running away from her family.

Her father, though he did love her, had been her first betrayer.

Abandoning her for that bitch. Or, at least, the seeming bitch that she was in Annabeth's mind at the time of said betrayal. Then having two other annoying, thoughtless, yet still lovable kids that he "obviously" favored. Not even caring when she would scream her lungs out at him. Blaming her for all the monster attacks, the near-death experiences, the huge expenses…

Dick.

Running away from her friends.

Thalia. That was an even bigger betrayal. At least with her father, there was a reason behind the betrayal. At least with him, there was a time when she could fool herself into believing that he had just been trying to protect his family.

But what Thalia did…

It had been **for** her. It had hurt so much more, and caused so much guilt, and so much loneliness…

Those damn monsters.

She remembered that night vividly.

The pounding rain, the fear coursing through her young veins. The desperation that was welling up in her for the first time in… ever. The horror and terror in poor Grover's eyes.

And the bravery in Thalia's.

Her confident posture as she stood, waiting for those beasts..

Grover and Chiron holding her and Luke back.

The pure sorrow she had seen in Luke's beautiful face.

The unrighteous anger she had felt towards… everything.

And with nothing to focus it on, she turned toward the cause of that anger.

Thalia.

That damned tree.

The one she would walk up to, imagining just yelling at it and beating the crap out of it, but always just sitting down, leaning against it, and sobbing. For hours on end.

And then, as the pain was finally disappearing, came the next friend to run from.

Luke.

Luke. The ultimate betrayal. She had… no. She hadn't been falling for him. She knew that now. But she thought she had. And, at the time, that was just as bad.

But he hadn't had any **good** reason for betrayal. Her father could have been being protective. Thalia had been showing the truest form of friendship.

But no Luke.

Luke felt that the gods needed to be destroyed. That was bad enough. After all, the gods—or at least her mother—had given her the skills to survive this far. The gods had given her friends. The gods had given her camp. The gods had given her the first quest. They had been her only true companion up to that point. Sure, they were distant, melodramatic, self-serving, and all-powerful, but they had helped her when no one else would.

And Luke's alternative… Not a good choice.

But she refused to believe he was completely gone. She thought she needed him to come back.

She had been so caught up in him; she hadn't noticed the amazing person right in front of her.

And he kept betraying her. Time and again she gave him the chance to come back.

But he refused.

Then he actually helped that bastard Titan rise.

That had been the final straw.

He was gone to her at that point. He had chosen _a fate worse than death_ to destroy the Olympians. He had chosen Kronos over her.

But then, as these betrayals continued to unfold around her, they slowly became less and less important.

All because of one boy.

A boy. Oh, the Fates must love the irony.

A daughter of the cold, calculating Athena, being broken time and again, only to be saved by a boy—a son of Poseidon, no less.

And she had tried to run from him.

She had seen her feelings, and she had sprinted in the other direction.

But now, she saw the truth.

She saw that despite all those who had betrayed her, he never would.

She saw that even if he was unorthodox, he was right for her.

She saw that even when they fought, the love in his eyes shown brighter than his deepest frustration.

She saw that she couldn't run away any more.

But she still ran.

She ran faster than she ever had before.

But now…

It was into his arms.

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><p><strong>AN: You guys convinced me.**

**20+ Chapters are on the way.**

**Be watching for Into the Darkness (subject to change).**

**It's set in the weeks before Percy reaches Camp Jupiter, and deals with his struggles with memory loss and Lupa. **

**Thanks for being awesome, and please keep reviewing.**


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